3.5k reviews for:

The Vaster Wilds

Lauren Groff

3.85 AVERAGE

giannaitt's review

3.0
adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark reflective tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

Love this writing.

Enjoyed the journey but not the destination.

Absorbing, hard and lovely. Themes of nature vs deities, the struggles borne of the human/ settler ego, and the just-as-human drive to survive it all. The craft and gorgeous economy of some of these sentences were perfection.

It seems Groff can do anything- this is my 4th of hers and really solidified her as a personal favorite. Smart girls surviving in wilderness is already my niche jam but clearly there is something special about this one that strikes a nearly universal cord. I still don’t think this will be for everyone - there is nothing about it that is like the typical page-turning bestseller. But if you’re a reader ready to be transported, to encounter both the ugliness and hardships of surviving this world as well as its sacred breathtaking divinity — pick this up. Reading this book is a beautiful experience.

Check TW for this, it’s not overly graphic but trauma is suffused and a central theme on surviving

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ 4.5/5

The story of a servant girl who escapes from the Jamestown colony to live a life of solitude in the surrounding wilds. Eventually she comes to see the human species - or at least her people's version of the species - as a parasitic disruption to the natural ecosystem and doomed to extinction.
adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Literature. Read the description before you read, lest you be confused as all get out.
adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings